Spurred on by being now the last day of June and ‘wot no blog post’. I must put finger to keyboard. I am sweltering in the hottest day so far here in June in Spain. There are severe temperature warnings. At Navasola, high in the hills, among many trees, we are below the 42 degrees of Seville, around 35 at the most. But that is too high for this time of year and for longer lengths of time.
This morning we were in our pretty little town of Aracena, braving the heat of 30 degrees by 10 in the morning.
Jobs to do. Pay tax on the car at the local town hall. Everything all set up with an online appointment. We walk through the warm fug and into a not very cool town hall. Through a security machine and wait. Finally we face the person in charge of taking the payment. We must come back tomorrow. Why? No payments can be taken until the 1st of July. We know we can not fight this and it is too hot. We are given another appointment for tomorrow. We go to our favourite bar for a coffee. And they do have the air conditioning on chill factor.
We then sit in the shade on a bench. The trees we are under are larger and older than the ones newly planted in the square. It is much cooler under the spreading branches and height of two older plane trees. Many are often pollarded and kept too small. Trees certainly help in cities and town. They also help keep us much cooler back at Navasola. Thank you trees. I go to the air con Lidl and ‘mi marido’ finally gets all his beard shaved off and hair reduced to the minimum by the Barber of Aracena.
The south of Spain is used to the heat you say. Yes! Everything needs to get done in the morning and then retreat from the glorious outside. The schools are now closed and all the town and village swimming pools are open. But life and work has to go on. I set off to the air con Lidl and ‘mi marido’ finally gets all his beard shaved off and hair reduced to the minimum by the Barber of Aracena. ( There are other barbers, but not quite like in the UK where there seem to be so many now.)
I am trying to keep up with the habit of walking a minimum of 5000 steps a day. That is now quite difficult in the heat. I get out of the car and walk back along our now, very red dusty track. With the umbrella I used when there was all the rain here now shading me. It was ok but no more walking than that needed as I am hot and need water to splash down and get the red dust off my feet. But there are many flowers still out and lots of butterflies and insects.
The house manages to keep the heat out if all doors and windows are shut. Most of the walls are new from 2013 and well insulated, at least a foot thick. ( 30cm) The older walls around the old casita are thick too and of mud and stone. The roof is well insulated and topped with the red terracotta tiles. The solar panels are busy topping up the batteries and feeding into the immersion heater for hot water. And charging all our tech devices.
We are off grid so would not have suffered from the ‘grand apagon’ when all the power in Spain collapsed. And the critics wished to blame Spain’s increasing use of fields of solar panels. It seems this year is the last for the coal mines too. This Spanish government has moved forward with renewable energy and other measures to reduce carbon emissions. And hybrid and electric cars are available at reasonable prices and trade ins for old fossil fuel cars. But still not a possibility for us out on a rough track. We just hold on to our old car and try and make fewer journeys.
None of these actions may appease the way the planetary systems might respond to the last 50 years of degradation if not enough countries respond. From Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the UK in the 1980s, acknowledging in a speech the biggest threat to life on earth is climate change, to David Attenborough, the famous naturalist talking about his film Ocean and how a healthy ocean stabilises the climate. But the ocean too is under duress from overexploitation and so many of its life forms which maintain it stability are suffering from industrial scale overfishing, plastic pollution and the rises in ocean temperature and death of coral reefs.
David Attenborough is positive. When left alone the ocean can recover. This is our chance to create a better future. The United Nations has been pushing for more Marine Protected areas in both the High Seas and for each coastal country’s up to 200 mile area. Slow responses again from countries to truly protect. The pressure of certain industries seems very strong on governments. However, I wonder if consumer power might work more. Eat less Fish to Give the Seas a Rest. Eat Local fish. Avoid farmed fish that are fed the wild fish other species eat.
A recent survey says over 80% of people want our governments to act on both the climate and nature crisis. We need to know what each other really thinks and take actions together and while we still have governments that respond to the people.
If we help nature recover, nature will help us have a future fit for our children and grandchildren.
But is this just about individuals, or even government? Or is this the reluctance of key big companies with lots of power slowing down and even pushing to not just use more and more fossil fuels but fish till the last fish, and so on. Continued overexploitation and sometimes under the word sustainable while knowing the damage being done. And also the lies taking us away from some fundamental scientific truths about our exploitation of planet and people. Creating toxic narratives to undermine the changes we need to take. And dare I say creating the wrong fears and the wrong wars.
The trees outside and all the plants at Navasola can probably take this heatwave this year as there is so much moisture in the soil from all the rain we have had through the winter and spring. I was going to write about the blessings of water, agua, after at least 5 years of drought. But I will finish this post with how amazing the trees and the sea are. The trees roots go deep for water and give us oxygen. The sea too from all the plants in the sea but also absorbs some of that carbon dioxide too. Natural Solutions to help us!
NavasolaNature 